Conveyor systems of various types are well known in the prior art. One typical type of conveyor system often found in manufacturing plants is a type wherein there is provided a conveyor means mounted on uprights or standards and embodying flexible chains that flex in both horizontal and vertical directions allowing construction of conveyors that will by friction engagement move a plurality of pallets from one station to another station. These chains may be made from metal or plastic and one company that makes such chains for conveyor systems is Rexnord Incorporated.
In using such a conveyor system work pieces are usually mounted on individual pallets and conveyed to a series of stations where a mechanical operation takes place to make or assemble the work pieces. In automating assembly of work pieces it is highly desirable to have quality inspections done at least at one station and many times at several or all of work stations so that when the work piece is completely assembled it is satisfactory. If during the transfer of the pallets carrying the work pieces the inspection indicates that a work piece is defective in some manner, that work piece should be subjected to independent rework or repair and further inspection to make it satisfactory. It is desirable that if during the transfer of work pieces from one station to the next it is found through inspection that the work piece is defective, it should be removed from the line and repaired and placed back on the line automatically. In most all continuous conveyor systems there is a problem of how to conveniently place the repair station and have the pallets carrying the work piece to be repaired removed from the line automatically and placed back on the line with a minimum of disruption of the main assembly line.
By this invention there is provided a conveyor system having a repair track that operates independently of the main transfer track system and has switching means for diverting the pallets containing the work pieces to be repaired to the repair track and after repair returning the pallets to the main conveyor track system.